Between the lines: Jonathan Tulloch on Larkinland

Last week I posted my review of Larkinland,  a 2017 novel by Jonathan Tulloch which evokes the atmosphere of Hull as discovered by the poet Phillip Larkin. In this Q&A Jonathan reveals the inspiration for his book and what he really thinks of the city.

Q. What was the inspiration for writing Larkinland? 

Over the past few years, I’ve been called increasingly to Hull. Not able to drive a motor car, I have the privilege of travelling to the city by train. It’s one of Europe’s finest journeys, with distant cathedral-like towers of power stations giving way to fields and flat lands, and then the great river up which the Vikings sailed. Add to this a copy of Larkin’s poetry with which I always travel to Hull, and you’ll see how I came to fall in love with both poet and place. The train is always the best place to really get to know Larkin. Just imagine he’s sitting with you. Of course, he’d be trying not to let you catch his eye.

Q. The novel is described as a mix of mystery and romance yet there is also a strong thread of humour. Did you set out with this blend in mind or did it evolve during the writing process? 

Life is all of those things; they invited themselves!

Q. What was more important to you when writing Larkinland – the plot, the character or the setting? 

Everything, in equal measure. What people don’t understand is that without Hull, Larkin becomes not much more than a skilled miniaturist. Hull is his muse.

Q. What was the most difficult aspect of the book to write? 

It’s the easiest book I’ve ever written.

Q. The book is described as “A fictionalisation of Philip Larkin’s poetic world” How much of your central character  is fiction? 

Hard to say. A lot of the character is his poetic persona, I don’t know much of his biog details so very little of it is strictly autobiographical.

Q. Fictional works created around real people always seem to generate questions about ethics. Given that your central character bears such a strong resemblance to Philip Larkin, were you conscious of the risk of misrepresenting someone once called the nation’s favourite poet? 

I think his shoulders are broad enough to carry more than my little capuchin monkey.

Q. Did you suffer any pangs of conscience about portraying Hull in a negative light just as it is celebrating its reincarnation as a capital of culture? 

In my writing I have always loved places on the edge. In fact these are the only places I like. Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Hull, Zimbabwe. So hopefully my love for Hull will come out. What might seem like an unflattering light may well be the opposite.

Q. How do you view Hull personally – liminal beauty or beached mudflats?

I love it. After all, it’s a place with two rugby league teams. I concur with Larkin’s poetry, in which the place becomes a kind of many towered Byzantium.

Q. You conjure up a vivid portrayal of the boarding house run by Miss Glendenning and her rituals. Did this come from personal experience of such establishments in your younger days?

I had friends living in horrible bedsits, and I lived in my fair share of communal houses, but never a lodgings like this. 

Q. Do you have a favourite passage in the book that you’d like to share? 

Something like, ‘a dog followed him home, until a thrown stone persuaded it bloody well not to.’ I must emphasise that the stone did not hit the dog.

Q. What books are currently on your bedside table?

I am reading the poetry of Ann Ahkmatova. We were on holiday in Lindisfarne last week and we all wrote a poem in a different style. I have since been taken over by Anna Ahkmatova. I came up with the following lines:

heavy as a thrown brick

I carry Anna Ahkmatova

to read by the shore in the hare’s-foot clover.

Of course, after lines like that, the Russian poet would have come up with a devastating image.

About the book: Larkinland by Jonathan Tulloch was published in July 2017 by Seren, an independent literary publisher, specialising in English-language writing from Wales.